Perth Freight Link: Making the right Investment A position paper for In Perth’s the City of Fremantle Freight Task by : Peter Newman and Cole Hendrigan Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute
June 8, 2015 This Position Paper was prepared for the City of Fremantle by Peter Newman and Cole Hendrigan of Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute between April and June of 2015. Professor Newman (AO) is a globally respected expert in transport and land use planning, while Dr Hendrigan is a recent PhD graduate in the same subject matter with a decade of private and public experience.
©City of Fremantle, 2015
ii Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan Contents I. ABSTRACT VII I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IX 1. Context ix 2. Understanding the Future Trends ix 3. Impacts of the Perth Freight Link ix 4. Options for the Port of Fremantle’s Freight Task xi 5. Conclusion xii II. INTRODUCTION 1 1. Fremantle: A Small Port with a Big Future 1 2. Fremantle’s Future: Change 2 3. Perth Freight Link: Consequences 3 4. Privatising the Fremantle Port Authority 4 III. THE ECONOMIC AND TRANSPORT CONTEXT 5 1. Introduction 5 2. Current Freight Task 5 3. Perth Freight Planning 5 IV. ABOUT PERTH FREIGHT LINK - ROUTES AND POLICY 16 1. Introduction 16 2. Why the PFL? 16 3. The Economics 16 4. Stated Benefi ts 16 5. Benefi t Cost Ratio 17 6. Time savings reconsidered 17 V. THE IMPACTS OF THE PERTH FREIGHT LINK 18 1. The Tollway Toll 18 2. Inner and Outer Harbour: Transport and Capacity Impacts 21 3. Truck Size and Road Geometry 21 4. Human and Natural Environment Impacts 22 5. Liveability Factors and Economic Impacts 26 VI. COSTS, RISKS AND OTHER ISSUES OF THE PERTH FREIGHT LINK 28 1. The costs of Perth Freight Link 28 2. Logistics of Construction 30 3. The Risks of Perth Freight Link 30 4. Impacts Visualised 31 VII. STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVES TO THE PERTH FREIGHT LINK 35 1. Introduction 35 2. Road Tunnel along the Fremantle Eastern Bypass 36 3. Rail expansion for the Inner Harbour 38 4. Outer Harbour Only 43 5. Cap and Transition 43 VIII. CONCLUDING REMARKS 53 1. Review of the options 53 2. Conclusion 54 IX. REFERENCES 57 X. APPENDIX 1: ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES 59 XI. APPENDIX 2: PORTS TO PORTALS 64
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iv Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan Aims, Goals, Objectives & Methodology of this paper
The aim of this report is to demonstrate alternative options to the Perth Freight Link (PFL) in a fair and balanced manner. It is obvious that the PFL as a freight movement link to serve the wider economy is a good idea, but this particular proposal will damage the long term viability of Fremantle as a living and working destination renowned for its inner-city living opportunities, heritage, tourism, and sustainable transport opportunities. The PFL, in this light, seems a sub-optimal solution for freight transport.
The goals - as per the project scope - of this report are:
i. To understand the existing capacity and future demand requirements for Port freight; ii. Find opportunities and infrastructure alternatives for improving links to the Port across the river and through North Fremantle; iii. Describe the potential to share freight rail line with passenger rail through south Fremantle; iv. Outline the impacts of PFL on wetlands, bushland, green space and signifi cant treed areas; v. Outline the impacts of PFL limited access reserves and cuttings on visual amenity and pedestrian and cyclist connections; vi. Outline the impact on access to and economic activity in the Fremantle CBD; and, vii. Outline access to existing facilities adjacent to proposed infrastructure reserves.
This report will expand on these issues and suggest some options.
The objectives are to demonstrate through text, charts, analysis of available data and specifi c design illustration the impacts of, and alternatives to, the PFL.
The Methodology employed: defi ne the scope of the project; explore the available documents from original sources; select those quotes and planning principles being expressed; analyze the meaning and potential outcomes of the source documents as they relate to long range planning for freight movements in the Perth metropolitan region and report the fi ndings in this paper. This paper will then consider future options with some data and visualisation to assess the risks of the proposed PFL and to outline several alternatives that could be considered.
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vi Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan I. ABSTRACT The Perth Freight Link (PFL) is designed to speed trucks carrying containerised freight to the Port of Fremantle’s Inner Harbour. In reality it seems mostly to be designed to take trucks off Leach Highway in the City of Melville and the seat of Riverton. As a tollway it is likely to undermine rail (now 14% of total containers) and the development of the Outer Harbour in the Kwinana area of Cockburn Sound. Both an increase in rail (to 30%) and an Outer Harbour have been long term bipartisan plans for freight movements.
The paper has calculated a potential fourfold increase in truck traffi c through the City of Fremantle leading to severe impacts such as: the potential planned freight system in the Kwinana area such as Latitude 32; the economy of Fremantle as an activity centre; the liveability of people along the proposed cutting as well as businesses such as D’Orsogna; the fl ow of traffi c at intersections with the PFL; the environment and attraction of East Fremantle and North Fremantle where there will be a signifi cant increase in trucks idling in the bottleneck created; the Western Suburbs as there will be many more trucks that take Curtin Avenue and Stirling Highway coming from the north; the environmental qualities of the Beeliar Wetlands; and, the health of people in adjacent suburbs through an increase in diesel particulate pollution along the route.
The PFL will also hasten the capacity issues in the Inner Harbour within 5 years and if built could undermine the value of privatising the Port of Fremantle when the PFL should have been providing access to the Outer Harbour in Kwinana.
Alternative options are considered including: Transport Demand Management (which should be an ongoing practice) to help the freight transport operate in non-peak times, a road tunnel under White Gum Valley as an expensive option to a harbour nearing capacity; a rail tunnel under Fremantle to the Inner Harbour also an expensive option to a harbour reaching capacity; and increasing rail’s capacity through electrifi cation and double stacking via a second freight rail bridge which will require signifi cant added costs to build the required intermodal hubs to accommodate an increase from 5 trains per day to possibly over 100.
An option for freight rail improvements combined with road based Transport Demand Management will offer gains in logistics in the short term, but the issue of freight movements encircling and invading Fremantle - by road or rail - is a challenging position for a city and suburbs trying to develop as a people-oriented activity centre. An investment in a long term strategy is required.
The best option is to redirect the PFL to Kwinana and use the Cap and Transition scenario to enable the building of the Outer Harbour as originally planned. The privatisation of the Port of Fremantle can include this requirement and the value of the sale would be considerably improved by having access provided to the long term container port. It generates various benefi ts: it removes the need for the PFL and shifts the capital investment where it is most benefi cial for the next 50 years of growth as road and rail connections to the Outer Harbour; it saves North Fremantle and the Western Suburbs from ‘bottlenecks’ created by an infl ux of heavy trucks; it allows the urban areas of Fremantle, East Fremantle and Melville to continue to grow into their envisaged promise of human-oriented, knowledge-economy based, higher-density urban areas; it removes pollution such as harmful diesel particulates and noise from the populated urbanised area; it maintains the access to the highly popular Port and Leighton beaches inclusive of the anticipated real-estate properties; and, it creates the potential for the Outer Harbour to become an asset to be leased as a part of the freight transport logistics long into the future.
The fi nal costs of the PFL will be much higher than the initial phases as it will necessitate further investments in bridges, interchanges and improvements in other parts of the logistics chain, especially in the fi nal route through East Fremantle and North Fremantle. At what price-point does a different strategy, such as a Cap and Transition strategy make more social, economic and logistics sense?
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viii Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Context There are several key contextual points for consideration in the following report:
i. There will be growth in both population and import/export trade; ii. The freight transport tasks ahead for the Metro region are daunting once the numbers are calculated - the State or a private enterprise will have to make investments soon; iii. The options for highways, trains, or other modes of transport all have negatives and positives but some are more realistic than others; iv. There has been a long-range bipartisan strategic plan to manage the growth in freight involving a transition to the Outer Harbour; v. The recent announcements of the Perth Freight Link and the privatisation of the Fremantle Port Authority need to be assessed as both are sudden decisions, largely politically driven, and many inadvertent impacts are possible as well as potential opportunities. 2. Understanding the Future Trends The following future trends are calculated using data in Table i on the following page.
i. The future as it has been planned: The Fremantle Inner Harbour now takes 700k TEU containers a year (in 2014) with 100k of these coming by rail. This was planned to move in 2050 to be 3 Million TEU containers with half going to the Inner Harbour and half to the Outer Harbour. 900k of these were anticipated to be on rail (30% is the goal for rail). If split equally this would mean 1,050,000TEU on trucks going to each Harbour. Thus the Inner Harbour would only have gone from 600k TEU containers on trucks in 2014 to 1,050k TEU in 2050, an increase of 57% but a substantially managed increase. ii. The future with the PFL: With no clear future for the Outer Harbour and decreased rail for the Inner Harbour (undermined by the need for trucks on the toll-road) there will be by 2050 3 million TEU containers travelling by truck through Fremantle instead of 1,050,000. This will be felt immediately and grow to impossible truck traffi c well before 2050. What the PFL means in terms of trucks is that instead of around 3000 trucks per day on a weekday in 2014 entering the Fremantle container port area, there would be 12-13,000 trucks per day by 2050 - a four fold increase. The consequences of such growth are going to be substantial on Fremantle and its surrounding local communities. 3. Impacts of the Perth Freight Link The following are the fi rst 11 unforeseen impacts of the Perth Freight Link:
i. Undermine the operational capacity of the Inner Harbour due to rapidly increasing truck traffi c to a port nearing land-side capacity instead of towards transport links better suited to long term freight growth; ii. Reducing the opportunity to develop the Outer Harbour as a part of the mid to long term public infrastructure strategy due to the need to make the PFL pay-back its
Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan ix Table i: The Maths Under PFL: Current: circa 100,000 on train 5 trains per day 700,000 TEUs in 14% of TEUs @ 80 TEUs per train 2014 3000 trucks per work day x 250 working days 750,000 trucks per year or 1.1 trucks per TEU per year (as observed in North Quay Truck Survey 2014) Future: 3,000,000 14% maintained = 420,000 TEU on train as = 23 trains per day; one every 64 minutes TEU in 2050 currently confi gured and no second bridge 30% = stated goal =45 trains per day at 32 minute intervals
50% = 1,500,000 TEU on train = 75 trains per day; one every 19 minutes 1.1 trucks per TEU 3,300,000 trucks per year or ~13,000 per 250 working days
With Rail Tunnel: Total Airport Rail Tunnel = $260 million /km $2.21 billion 8.5 km Proposed Freight $260 million/km $2.34 billion Tunnel = 9 km Marshalling yards Unknown, but certainly expensive and expansive Melbourne has Dynon Intermodal hub at ~86 for trains hectares for 3 million TEU
Number of Trains 50% of 3 million TEU at 80 TEU per train 75 trains per day per day 50% of 3 million at 160 TEU per train double 38 trains per day stacked
Under Cap and Transition to 2050: Inner Harbour 30% on rail of 700,000= 210,000 TEU 11 trains a day @ 80 TEU per train 700,000 70% on truck of 700,000 = 420,000 TEU 539,000 trucks per year or 2156 per working day (250 days per year) Outer Harbour 30% on rail = 690,000 TEUs to move 35 trains per day @ 80 TEU per train 2,300,000 70% by truck = 1,610,00 TEU to move 1,771,000 trucks per year or 7084 per working day (250 days per year)
Table i outlines the dramatic changes in freight volume which will be the Perth Metro Region’s task to transport within its urbanised area in the coming decades. Where and how it can be managed is the focus of this report.
x Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan investment (as it is a toll-road); iii. Undermining time frames for investments in access alternatives (road and rail) to the Outer Harbour; iv. Closing rail to the Inner Harbour. Rail freight movement will be far less competitive due to the need to put as much of the containers as possible through the tollway; v. Increasing diesel particulates with its damaging long term health effects; vi. Fracturing North Fremantle and causing congestion at the port’s landside entrance; vii. Impacting the Beeliar Wetlands and Banksia woodlands; viii. Severing the suburbs with the proposed cutting in Fremantle, East Fremantle and Melville; ix. Severely limiting the work the Council has done to reinvigorate the City of Fremantle over the last decades as trucks and people-intensive city centres do not mix; x. Driving away tourists and local beach users from the North Fremantle area due to the increase in trucks; xi. Increasing truck fl ows down Port Beach Road and Curtin Avenue through the high value Western Suburbs as the loss of rail and an Outer Harbour will drive increased north- bound truck traffi c to run via the built up area road network: this will reinforce the long standing plan to build the Stephenson Highway from Mitchell Freeway, a long standing unpopular project with communities and councils in the Western Suburbs.
4. Options for the Port of Fremantle’s Freight Task The impacts and benefi ts of each option assessed are summarised as follows.
A. Transport Options If the port remains where it is and is expanded to meet the growth in demand, then a highway, such as the proposed PFL, is well suited though it has impacts outlined above. Other options are road and rail tunnels and an upgraded rail service with a second bridge. All of these options are listed in Table i and have positives and negatives such as:
i. PFL Freeway: a. Pos: deals with the freight, increases effective capacity of the Inner Harbour; b. Neg: noise and air pollution; severance of urban fabric with decreased property values; and high capital and political expense. ii. Road Tunnel a. Pos: deals with the freight, increases effective capacity of the Inner Harbour becomes an asset to sell or lease; b. Neg: noise and air pollution; high capital expense; doesn’t alleviate the North Fremantle bottleneck or the ultimate Inner Harbour capacity issues. iii. Rail Bridge: a. Pos: extends capacity of the Inner Harbour, is better than trucks, enables electrifi cation and double stacking of containers; b. Neg: noise and discomfort of increased freight train movements through Esplanade to North Coogee and beyond; expense. Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan xi iv. Rail Tunnel: a. Pos: moves larger portion of freight by rail; extends capacity of Port, increases land values along foreshore; b. Neg: large expense; needs additional land for intermodal hubs to manage loading and unloading differently from current operations. None of these options assist with the value of the Port of Fremantle privatisation as the Outer Harbour needs to be developed quite soon and the PFL would increase the sale value if it was redirected to provide access in Kwinana. Lastly, as the freight rail lines have been privatised any pubic investment in rail will be to private benefi t.
B. Outer Harbour Option i. Cap and Transition a. Pos: freight is handled much more effi ciently at places like Latitude 32 and with less negative impacts on existing urban residential and commercial areas; b. Neg: the Inner Harbour may be left with many question marks as to its future function, but this can be actively avoided with foresight as the container port is phased out. ii. Outer Harbour alone a. Pos: Freight transport will no longer negatively affect Fremantle or other suburban areas like Melville and the Western Suburbs; redevelopment of Inner Harbour becomes a major development opportunity; b. Neg: The transition of the Port lands may be decades away leaving a gap in the urban fabric unless proactive planing starts today.
5. Conclusion The Perth Freight Link is not helping with the long term movement of freight in Perth as it is simply shifting truck impacts away from one area (City of Melville) 1 and creating multiple impacts on the Beeliar Wetlands and the City of Fremantle. The long term strategy of developing a new container port in Kwinana needs to be reinstated with a cap on trucks entering Fremantle at around 700,000 TEUs per year. This can be incorporated into the Public Private Partnership procedures for the Fremantle Port Authority privatisation and the PFL shifted as a capital expenditure to provide road and rail access for the new Kwinana container port. This can enable the City of Fremantle to continue to grow as a people-intensive economy and the Kwinana region to continue as a freight-intensive economy.
The second best option, described in the paper, is to upgrade the rail system using electrifi cation and double stacking which will require a dedicated rail bridge. Third best, though very expensive, is a rail tunnel from the Inner Harbour under the Swan River emerging in Spearwood on the current freight rail alignment as there are multiple co-benefi ts in addition to it having the required throughput. Fourth best is to have a road tunnel from High and Leach to dive under White Gum Valley and Clontarf Hill emerge onto the Roe 9 RoW though many issue related to the North Fremantle ‘bottle-neck’ and the Beeliar wetlands remain. The PFL, as proposed, is among the poorest of options due to its risks as well as fi nancial, environmental and social costs.
All these options, other than the Outer Harbour, do not increase the value of the sale of Port of 1 Apart from the 77 homes in Melville’s Palmyra as reported in the West Australian. May 18, 2015. “Residents Fight Road Plan” https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/28061049/residents-fight-road-plan/ xii Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan Fremantle as the PFL and the other options are not helping in the long-term strategy of shifting to the Outer Harbour and allowing better - denser and more liveable - development in the urban areas of Fremantle, East Fremantle, Melville and the Western Suburbs as global best practices would indicate.
The following main body of the paper will look more closely at the planning context, the rationale and impacts of the Perth Freight Link and strategic alternatives to achieve better outcomes in the task of freight movements in the Perth metropolitan region.
Table ii: Options Summary Options/ Low Impact High Capacity Expense Ease of Net Positive for Likely to Implementation Urban Area be Part of Benefi t Privatisation
Tunnel - Rail Yes Moderate, limited by High, in the $2 Feasible and Frees up the No, but logistics of loading billion range possible, grades current freight could be and unloading can work with ROW for added to protected areas public transit lease untouched to Cockburn Coast and value capture from land redevelopment Tunnel - Road No, only Moderate, limited High, in the $2 Feasible and Saves White Gum No reduces by volume of trucks billion range if not possible, grades Valley, but the severance increased as port higher due to safety can work, protected diesel exhaust and remains where is for drivers and areas untouched vibrations may be dangerous cargo a problem Upgraded rail Yes Moderate, limited Low, compared High, but the May cause No by volume of trains to other options. higher volume of political issues increased as port $0.5 billion for new freight trains may along foreshore remains where it is bridge and other cause issues along and in South works foreshore and in Fremantle and South Fremantle Cockburn Coast and Cockburn as the number of Coast trains increases Perth No Moderate, limited High, with $1.6 Moderate, the Very damaging to No by volume of trucks billion for fi rst phase engineering is property values, Freight increased as port and following works feasible but the liveability, air Link remains where is likely another $1.5 political costs may quality, urban billion be high redevelopment
Transport Yes Moderate, spreads Low High, but truck Moderate, with Yes Demand the timing of drivers, loaders, more trucks Management transport warehousing will running at night need to change there will be hours of operation issues
Cap and Yes Very effi cient use of High, new port and High, has been High as it reduces Yes Transition existing and new roads to be built planned for over 40 impact on City of assets with upgrades to years Fremantle existing roads & rail Outer Harbour Yes Most effi cient High, new port and High, has been Highest of Yes logistics with roads to be built but planned for over 40 all. Increased custom built 21st C with fewer upgrades years property values, freight transport to existing roads higher pre-sale & rail sales, no negative air pollution or highways
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xiv Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan II. INTRODUCTION 1. Fremantle: A Small Port with a Big Future Fremantle is a mixed use port handling containers, 10 Mtpa 2 of bulk liquids (crude and re! ned oil imports and exports) and 9.3 Mtpa of mixed bulk. Fremantle’s annual container capacity is 1.2-1.4 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEU), only 50 per cent of which was utilised in 2011. It is forecast to have the strongest growth rate in the country, apart from the bulk commodity Pilbara ports. 3
The citizens of Fremantle enjoy the Port of Fremantle as an ever changing backdrop to their daily lives - and to many it remains the place of their daily earnings. To accommodate the growth of the port, as a function of a growing economy, the Perth Freight Link (PFL) has been planned to match the dock-side capacity with a road-based freight transport supply commensurate to moving containers for import or export from the Inner Harbour.
Moving freight in cities is mostly done by trucks as they can deliver from multiple origins to multiple destinations. However trucks do impact on cities due to their noise, diesel pollution, and disruption to traffi c. This is especially apparent where the economy of the metropolitan region and wider economic hinterland focus at the point of trade: the tide-water ports. To overcome the issues and to create a smoother fl ow of goods, most cities in the developed world – and developing - have created strategies to deal with excessive truck movements. Two key strategies are involved:
1. Shift the container port away from the main urban area where freight-related economic activity can thrive without disturbing the more productive parts of the city involved in knowledge and services-oriented economic activity; and
2. Increase the use of freight on rail by creating freight terminals where trucks can feed containers onto highly effi cient, intermodal, rail systems. This approach is outlined and accepted across Australia in Infrastructure Australia’s National Port Strategy 4.
In the developed world there are no major cities that have left their container port in the centre of major urban activity. By shifting the ports to a better site it is possible to improve road and rail connections and thus greater freight effi ciencies are created. As well, new technologies are utilised in the new container and shipping operations. Thus freight-intensive productivity is increased as well as people-intensive urban productivity is increased in areas freed up from trucks.
Fremantle’s Inner Harbour is a little different to other cities as it was always away from the centre of Perth (unlike Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore for example) and thus the pressure to move the port has not been so great. However it is in the centre of Fremantle. As Fremantle’s Inner Harbour grew in trucks and the Fremantle CBD transformed into a knowledge and services centre, the need to reconsider the site of the container terminal has grown. The pressure to begin building a new Outer Harbour container facility has thus been on the agenda for several decades as has the need to increase the proportion of freight going to rail.
2 Million tonnes per annum 3 IA. 2015. “Australian Infrastructure Audit: Our Infrastructure Challenges Report – Volume 2” April 2015 http://www.infrastructureaustralia. gov.au/policy-publications/publications/files/Australian-Infrastructure-Audit-Volume-2.pdf 4 IA. 2011. “National Ports Strategy — 2011” http://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/policy-publications/publications/National-Ports- Strategy-2011.aspx Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan 1 2. Fremantle’s Future: Change The Fremantle Port Authority in their most recent Annual Report (2014) 5 made the following comment:
‘Fremantle Port’s Inner Harbour container trade is expected to reach optimal capacity within the next 10 to 15 years, with the timing dependent on trade trends and other factors. When this occurs, additional facilities will be needed to cater for further growth. Signi! cant planning for these has been undertaken over many years and the WA Planning Commission has been tasked subsequently with assessing and making recommendations to State Cabinet on the optimal location and design’. (p28)
The expected transition is set out in the planning scenario in Figure 1 showing the growth in containers to the Fremantle Inner Harbour being capped at around 1 million TEU 6 and the transition to an Outer Harbour container terminal commencing in 2022.
At the same time the number of containers transferred from trucks to trains was expected to increase as has been the case in recent years. See Figure 2 from the Fremantle Port Authority Annual Report in 2014.
The proportion has been increasing very slowly but the total number of containers on rail has been growing steadily and was expected to increase further as the rail access at North Fremantle has recently been improved. Ultimately the freight strategy was designed to take 30% of trucks with containers off the road and replace them with highly effi cient train freight.
Thus despite the Inner Harbour being a constrained site it appeared that the Outer Harbour and increased use of rail would mean that truck numbers could be managed despite there being issues in the approaches along Leach Highway and especially in North Fremantle where the trucks are focussed. 5 Fremantle Port Authority. 2014. “FPA Annual Report” 6 TEU: twenty foot equivalent units - a universal measure for freight movements based on the size one size of a standard container
Figure 1. Indicative scenario for the Inner and Outer Harbour transition arrangements. Source: Perth Freight Link, Business Case Executive Summary 2 Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan However this has now been subverted by the announcement of the $1.6 billion Perth Freight Link (PFL) that was brought into the transport planning system in February 2015. For the State of Western Australia (WA) it is hard to react negatively to a substantial Federal Grant when the state is struggling fi nancially. However, this particular project has many inadvertent and serious impacts outlined below.
3. Perth Freight Link: Consequences The PFL is likely to have a series of unforeseen consequences:
i. Undermine the operational capacity of the Inner Harbour due to rapidly increasing truck traffi c to a port nearing land-side capacity instead of towards transport links better suited to long term freight growth; ii. Reducing the opportunity to develop the Outer Harbour as a part of the mid to long term public infrastructure strategy due to the need to make the PFL pay-back its investment (as it is a toll-road); iii. Undermining investment time frames for investments in access alternatives (road and rail) to the Outer Harbour; iv. Reduction of rail to the Inner Harbour. Rail freight movement will be far less competitive due to the need to put as much of the containers as possible through the tollway; v. Increasing diesel particulates with its damaging long term health effects; vi. Fracturing North Fremantle and cause congestion at the port’s landside entrance; vii. Impacting the Beeliar Wetlands; viii. Severing the suburbs with the proposed cutting in Fremantle; ix. Severely limiting the work the Council has done to reinvigorate the City of Fremantle over the last decades as trucks and people-intensive city centres do not mix; x. Driving away tourists and local beach users from the North Fremantle area due to the increase in trucks; xi. Increasing truck fl ows down Port Beach Road and Curtin Avenue through the high
Figure 2. The number and proportion of containers on road and rail reaching the Inner Harbour, 2003/4 to 2013/14. Source: Fremantle Port Authority Annual Report, 2014. Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan 3 value Western Suburbs as the loss of rail and an Outer Harbour will drive increased north-bound truck traffi c to run via the built up area road network: this will reinforce the long standing plan to build the Stephenson Highway from Mitchell Freeway, a much maligned concept. xii. There is also the chance that the congestion will not be resolved through the PFL as the heavy trucks may avoid using the toll-road and continue to use Leach ( a much more direct) while the PFL may become overly popular with private automobile drivers were it to be not tolled. Effectively, with a toll there are negatives (avoidance) and without a toll there are negatives (overuse); neither of these options have been made public by the State of Western Australia.
All of these impacts will be expanded upon in Chapter IV: The PFL and Chapter V: Impacts.
4. Privatising the Fremantle Port Authority The decision to privatise the Fremantle Port Authority (FPA) made in the State Budget on May 15th, follows the sale of the ports in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, and Darwin. The rationale for such recycling “capital in mature assets into new infrastructure” was developed by Infrastructure Australia (IA) in the National Infrastructure Plan 7. This was following an earlier IA report 8 on the “potential benefi ts of transferring publicly held infrastructure to the private sector so that governments facing budgetary constraints can use the net proceeds to fi nance new infrastructure and overcome the infrastructure defi cit.”
This decision can enable options that would help solve these issues outlined above or it could make the situation worse. Thus in each option the implications from privatising the FPA will be examined.
7 IA. 2013. “Report to COAG: National Infrastructure Plan June 2013” http://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/policy-publications/ publications/Report-to-COAG-National-Infrastructure-Plan-June-2013.aspx 8 IA. 2012. “Australia’s Public Infrastructure — Part of the Answer to Removing the Infrastructure Deficit” http://www.infrastructureaustralia. gov.au/policy-publications/publications/Australias-Public-Infrastructure-Part-of-the-Answer-to-Removing-the-Infrastructure-Deficit.aspx 4 Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan III. THE ECONOMIC AND TRANSPORT CONTEXT 1. Introduction The Perth Metropolitan region continues, despite a recent downturn in the iron ore prices, to grow in population, land area and economic diversity. Inherent within this growth are more consumers and needs of small and medium sized enterprises (SME) to access imports and create exports. Furthermore, as the agricultural sector diversifi es its product and consumer base, the requirements to have a ready and open distribution system through containers becomes all the more apparent (e.g. Wheat) . The economy has grown from 1990’s Gross State Product of $76.9 Billion to $265 Billion in 2013-14 9. Perth and Peel is expected to reach a population of around 3.5 million by 2031 10 and around 5 million by 2050 11 . Hence freight is likely to continue to grow with some reduction in per capita freight movements due to dematerialization, the information technology revolution and logistics improvements. 12
2. Current Freight Task As will be seen on the following pages, Perth’s freight task is to move large volumes of containers and other durable, perishable, and break-bulk goods (such as imported mining matériel) primarily through to inland ports at Kewdale, Henderson and O’Connor. Containers are by far the biggest part of the freight in the Inner Harbour at North Quay. The trend is likely to be continued and expanded within Fremantle and these freight focussed places. However, there is also reason to expect new warehousing to be developed in the outskirts of the urban area adjacent to any upgraded highway or rail access as the pressures to urbanise increase and companies fi nd other areas to expand with fewer encumbrances and better logistics. This has been a typical pattern found throughout land-rich and automobile-dependent nations world-wide as such industries seek larger footprints with less cost and fewer constraints.
Kewdale / Welshpool leads the way as an inland port, warehousing and transhipping area from the port to the rest of the urban region, the state and across the nation.
3. Perth Freight Planning There have been many plans and reports that include freight. The key reports are:
A. Old Plans, Evolving Plans i. Stephenson Hepburn Plan a. In the era of Stephenson Hepburn Plan (SHP), cargo was dealt quite differently as the era of containers was not yet envisaged. It was much more labour intensive and required more smaller trucks to deliver the same loads. This is the reason the SHP forecasted foreshore highways to both quays of the inner harbour. Theses highways have been removed. ii. MRS Updates a. The original Metropolitan Regional Scheme followed the SHP and forecast larger, bolder highways suited to a metropolis with the expectation that rail was not going to factor. 9 Committee for Perth “Factsheets 1-6” 2015. From: http://www.committeeforperth.com.au/researchFactSheets.html 10 WAPC,.2015. “Perth And Peel @ 3.5million” http://www.planning.wa.gov.au/publications/3.5million.asp 11 ABS. 2015. “Western Australia. Population Size” http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/3222.0main+features112012%20 (base)%20to%202101 12 IPCC. 2014. “Methodological and Technological Issues in Technology Transfer. 3.1 Residential, Commercial, and Institutional Buildings Sector” http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/tectran/index.php?idp=523 Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan 5 This scheme has been modifi ed over the years as political and physical needs dictate. iii. Freight Network Review a. The Freight Network Review of circa 2002 recognised the profound diffi culty and ineffi ciency of the Inner Harbour and made many recommendations including: by 2008 “Planning approvals for Fremantle Port outer Harbour be fi nalised”; by 2012 “30% of containers moved by rail to and from Fremantle Inner Harbour; and by 2012 “Outer Harbour begins to accommodate overfl ow from Fremantle Inner Harbour” 13 iv. The 6-point plan for moving freight in the south west Corridor, in 2008, was 14 : a. Extend Roe Highway to Kwinana Freeway; b. Put more freight on rail; c. Build inland container terminals; d. Make better use of roads; e. Plan now for the Outer Harbour at Fremantle; and f. Improve existing roads
13 Kewdale-Hazlemere Integrated Masterplan “Table 2.1 Freight Network Review implementation plan and recommendations” From: http:// www.planning.wa.gov.au/dop_pub_pdf/KH_Chapter_Two.pdf 14 Lumsden, Eric. 2008. “Planning for the South West Corridor” Department for Planning and Infrastructure. Available at: https://www. engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/shado/Divisions/Western%20Australia%20Division/Panels%20and%20Societies/Transport/ South%20West%20Corridor%20Planning%20atCity%20of%20Melville%2024%20Apr%20-%20Final.pdf 6 Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan Figure 3. Freight Destinations around the Perth Metro. Source: South West Group. March 2015. “Review of South West Group Strategic Plan” www.southwestgroup.com.au
Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan 7 PE
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Figure 4. Perth and Peel @ 3.5 Million, Spatial Plan from Department of Planning, WA. http://www.planning.wa.gov. au/dop_pub_pdf/Spatial_Plan_A3.pdf Named freight handling sites. 8 Perth Freight Link Newman & Hendrigan 4ABLE 4WO THIRDS OF ALL UNPACKS
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